Untamed Heart ✨

Chapter 31 - The Dark Horse Arrives

We wait it out for a little bit, each voice seemingly fading one after the other until all falls silent. The only sounds now are the birds chittering outside, the echo of movement upstairs and my own shaky breathing. "What's happening?" Hina wonders, taking moving and checking it out into her own hands. "Are you sure it's stopped? We don't want to open the door and get ambushed" I note, however still complying and helping her as we slowly try and shift the fragmented shelf from up off of the ground. It takes us a little while, but we manage, pushing the shelf away as it cascades down in a different direction away from the door. "Finally" I exhale, carefully placing my hands on the door and pressing my ear against it, listening out to try and catch a snippet of any sort of sound. "Hello?!" someone calls. I jump instantly, the oddly familiar loud voice tempting me to turn the handle of the door. It's definitely not Akkun's voice, but still someone I've interacted with before. I turn and nod to Hina, gently twisting the knob as the door creeps open, voluminous blue hair displayed in front of our eyes. I look around the floor first, multiple men presumably from earlier spread out across the hall. I didn't really get a decent look at them before, but I assume it can only be them. I avert my eyes away and upwards, curly yet fluffy hair as well as the hue of his eyes instantly recognisable to me. "Angry??" I question, his signature snarl and balled fists fading as he returns to calmness. "Did you do this?" Hina asks, appearing from behind me. His wide eyes gape down at the men on the floor, shrugging as his teeth grit together. "Well some of it. It was mostly Smiley though" he mutters moving out of the way to let us exit out. "Smiley is here?" I ask, prompting him to extend a hand out, pointing to the double doors at the end of the hall. I stare over, both doors slightly open as Smiley peers through, making sure nobody is around. "Okay I'm so glad you're here but... Akkun? Did you help him as well?". Angry looks at me bewildered, looking around as if he's never seen him around. "He was here?" Angry asks, Smiley making his way back over with the wide grin still lighting up his face as usual. "Yeah right down there, didn't you see him when you came in?" I ask, my body beginning to stress itself out now. At least, more than before. "What's going on?" Smiley asks, Hina and I looking at him with dread in our eyes. I make sure to bring the twins with me, tracing back to the hallway we came in from. "Wait what are we looking at?" Smiley asks, confusion escalating further and further in my mind. Nothing. No Akkun or Madarame, even though they were here just a few minutes ago. "Akkun... He was here fighting someone while we ran to find help or hide or whatever". "Who was he fighting?" Angry questions, oddly close. "Um I think his name was like Shion or something. The brothers looks at each other before looking back at me, Smiley scratching his head." Well Akkun would beat him surely, I'm not sure what the problem is". "The problem is that they were here, and now they're not. What, did one of them run off or something? Surely you would've seen them if they had". Angry glances back over at Smiley, both of their takes on the situation just as muddled as ours. "We came in from over there, where I was checking just a moment ago, so there's still a slight chance they would've gone without notice" Smiley explains. "Okay yeah that makes sense, but why would one of them run. They wouldn't have finished the fight that quickly would they?". They both shake their heads in unison, Angry looking over at the door at the other end of the hall. "Or what if they went back to the first floor?" Hina says, sparking up a new investigation. "None of us would've seen anything if that was the case". "Why though?". We think about it for a while, making sure nobody is drawing closer in the meantime. "I don't know, maybe one of them got spooked or got hurt too badly? Tried to run away"... Hina queries, my detective brain full of so many different questions. "Sadly that makes sense" Smiley adds. "I feel like although Madarame is strong, he'd bolt if he felt he was on his last life if you know what I mean". I nod, pacing down and back over to the staircase we came up from. "Where are you going?" Angry asks, to which no reply is given. Hina rushes over, placing a hand on my shoulder to stop my pursuit. "Hey think about this... You don't want to just rush off do you, you may get hurt". I sigh, coming to the conclusion she's probably right as usual. "How about this" Smiley calls, bringing the both of us back over for the meantime as if he's creating a new plan of his own. "I'll go check downstairs quickly, if they're still fighting somewhere it won't be hard to miss them. Meanwhile, Angry will stay with you two in case anyone else tries to jump you". "You're putting a lot of faith in me bro" Angry remarks, looking away from everyone. Smiley's grin somehow extends wider, the two of them exchanging motivational and loving words. "Well you did well earlier to save these two" he mutters to him. "Yeah that was mostly you Nahoya" he counters, dismissing what Smiley has to say. "You'll be fine, we both know how strong you are" Smiley finishes, creeping away finally at no real speed. "Just don't cry yeah?" Smiley adds quickly before turning and bolting down the stairs. "What does he mean by that?" I ask, Angry dancing around the question. "Nothing, don't worry. Let's go yeah?" he proposes, Hina and I wasting no time as we follow close behind. I take a moment as something hits me, pulling out the police radio Naoto gave me. "Naoto, you there? We've got news".